ISLAMABAD: Despite challenges, the performance of various sectors of the economy showed impressive growth as depicted by different economic growth indicators.
During the first five months of the current fiscal year, the exports have witnessed a growth of 10.49 per cent over the corresponding period of fiscal year 2016-17, while during the month of November, the exports increased by 12.35 per cent compared to the exports of November 2016, as reported by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) of the country witnessed an impressive growth of 9.64 per cent during the first four months of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year.
The highest growth of 5.90 per cent was witnessed in the indices monitored by Ministry of Industries, followed by 2.69 per cent growth in the products monitored by Provincial Bureaus of Statistics (PBOS) and 1.06 per cent growth in the indices of Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC).
On a year-to-year basis, the industrial growth increased by 8.77 per cent during October 2017 as compared to same month of last year. The revenue collection during the first half of the current fiscal year (2017-18) witnessed an increase of 17.5 per cent as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
The revenue collection by FBR during July-December (2017-18) was recorded at over Rs1,722 billion against Rs1,466 billion collected during the same period of the previous fiscal year, showing an increase of 17.5 per cent, indicating that FBR was on track to achieve annual collection target of Rs4,013 billion. Moreover, the number of return filers has also increased up to 1,158,380, showing an increase of 21.5 per cent compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Meanwhile, the total foreign reserves stand at $20.383 billion including $14.332 billion held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and remaining by commercial banks. The inflation continues to remain in single digit as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) during December 2017 witnessed an increase of 4.57 per cent as compared to the same month of previous year.
On a month-on-month basis, the inflation witnessed a negative growth of 0.10 per cent in December 2017 as compared to November 2017. The CPI inflation during July-December (2017-18) increased 3.75 per cent as compared to the first half of the fiscal year 2016-17.
The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) during the month increased by 0.36 per cent while the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) witnessed a growth of 0.67 per cent, according to PBS data.
